A Ford spokesman stated that EV sales are “not growing at the pace that I think ourselves or the industry had expected.”

The original plan had been to build a plant capable of producing 400,000 EVs a year. Now it will build a plant capable of  230,000 EVs a year. Employment was to have totalled 2,500 people, now it will be 1,700. The plant is due to open in 2026.

Last month Ford said it was postponing $12 billion of EV investments. In September, the company  said it would postpone the building of a second battery plant in Kentucky which it was to build with SK of Korea.

The company lost $3.1 billion on its EV business in the first three quarters of this year and expects to lose $4.5 billion in the full year,

873,000 EVs were sold in the US this year until the end of September representing 8% of the total US vehicle market.